Apple TV, Cheap Space, and KUSP

Many a nerd has dreamed of exploring space—the final frontier—as a child. Despite visions in books, comics, TV, and film of a future where space travel is commonplace, that dream is still far from reality. But a handful of “self-admitted nerds” from the interactive design firm Sevnthsin are taking to the skies with a weather balloon, a hacked cooler, and the latest in mobile technology.

Calling their project Yavin IV (after a rebel base in the Star Wars universe), the small group from Minneapolis, Minnesota completed their first full launch on Friday. Ars was on the scene to capture the event, and we spoke with project leader Jamey Erickson to understand what the project is trying to accomplish, and what’s in store for its future.

The project first started after some interoffice goading from Sevnthsin senior developer Jessie Ross. Erickson and Ross are long-time friends, and have a pact to go on a Virgin Galactic space orbit trip the minute the service is available to the general public.

This thing is the greenest set top box we’ve ever seen: * Super small, so minimal materials and shipping * 5.95 Watts while running flat-out, 1W on standby * Very repairable, which is rare for Apple these days. We gave it an 8/10 repairability score. (Nobody’s getting to 10 without an open source repair manual!)

Imagine if this thing replaces everything from your blu-ray player to xbox to cable TV box. That’s a lot of vampire draw done away with. Of course, you have to factor in the power draw of the device streaming to Apple TV, but people have those anyway, and iPads don’t use much power either.

The whole TV media player / set-top box market has caused so much environmental damage over the last 20 years, just to transmit bits. That needs to stop, and it finally will now thanks to things like Apple TV, Roku, and Boxee box.

Foul language has become an increasing bad habit and thanks to the Internet its harder to be caught out – no one can hear you type the words. This is all about to change thanks to Pepper Mouth, Rosie Khdir explains…

The device includes five buttons on the face of a card and a paper-thin flexible display. The display hides a portion of a cardholder’s payment card number. To turn the device ON, a user must enter a personal unlocking code into the card. If the user enters in the correct unlocking code, the card will then visually display the user’s payment card number so that the user can read the number for online transaction. The magnetic stripe is then populated with the correct magnetic data such that the card can also be used with magnetic stripe readers. After a period of time, the display turns OFF and the Electronic Stripe™ erases itself – thus removing all critical payment information from the surface of the card. If the card is lost or stolen, the card is essentially useless.

Matchmaking, if you think about it, is at the heart of so many business transactions. Buyer meets seller; volunteer meets nonprofit; investor meets worthy startup. It’s not too surprising, then, to see a matchmaking service target potential business cofounders, with the aim of helping them hook up. That, indeed, is just the purpose of UK-based MatchFounders.

Launched recently at Launch48 — with advice, incidentally, from a Lovestruck mentor — MatchFounders aims to create “matched introductions between passionate people with different skill sets, creating lasting and fruitful professional relationships,” in the site’s own words. Visitors to the site can search for potential matches based on a potential partner’s desired expertise, funding preferences and commitment.

The Emotiv EPOC headset is the most advanced mass-produced consumer-grade EEG headset on the market. It has 14 electrodes (as opposed to NeuroSky’s single-electrode and OCZ’s three-electrode headsets) and it can also detect head movement using a built-in gyroscope. The EPOC uses its sensors to detect changes in electrical activity using EEG monitoring techniques that let it detect facial gestures and estimate roughly relative mood states.